Increasingly, communication is accomplished via wireless technologies. Mobile devices such as cell phones, laptop computers, game players, music players, and personal digital assistants may be used to communicate voice and non-voice information using wireless signals over wireless networks. A wireless network is any telecommunication system wherein wireless signals are communicated to and from wireless devices that utilize the system. A telecommunication system is a collection of equipment (for example, electrical and optical switching equipment, computing resources, etc.) to enable people and/or devices to communicate with one another over substantial distances.
The user of a wireless device may pre-pay (e.g., pay in advance of access) for use of the telecommunication system. With prepayment, the telecommunication system provider may be certain of payment for use of its facilities. The pre-paying customer may be assured that charges for using the telecommunication system will not exceed the pre-paid amount, unless additional payment is first authorized.
Conventional prepaid telecommunications systems accept prepayment in the form of funds transferred from the customer to the telecom system provider. The prepayment is typically a separate transaction from the calls the customer makes and receives.
A drawback to conventional prepayment approaches is that the customer must typically part with substantial funds in order to enable pre-paid access. The funds that the customer must part with typically comprise the cost of using the telecommunication system for an extended period of time. The customer may not actually use all of the time paid for, or may take many days, weeks, or months to use all the time. For example, in a typical prepaid system, the customer may be required to prepay for one hundred, five hundred, or a thousand minutes of use. Such large pre-allocations of funds may tax the financial resources of less affluent customers.
Another drawback of conventional prepayment approaches is that the customer may not be presented with an opportunity to approve or disapprove the rate charged against the prepaid amount on a transaction-by-transaction basis. If the customer is roaming on a telecom network other than the one to which they subscribe, the rates charged to send or receive a call may be substantially higher than the rates charged on the customer's home network. Further, a subscriber is typically locked into using a specific service provider, when using conventional prepaid services.
For these and other reasons, it may benefit the customer to have the ability to prepay for use of the telecom system on a transaction basis.